Higgins edged out in U.S. Junior Amateur Round of 64
Reed Higgins of Edmond battled from two holes down to take the lead before losing four of the final six holes in a 2 up loss to Tripp Depoy of The Woodlands, Texas, in the first round of match play in the 78th U.S. Junior Amateur at Saucon Valley Country Club Wednesday.
Higgins, who earned the No. 40 seed in stroke play, won holes 8, 9, 11 and 12 to go 1 up. But he lost holes 13, 14 and 15 in succession to fall two down before trimming the deficit back to one by winning hole 16. The players tied 17 and Higgins ran into trouble trying to win the 18th and double bogey.
Oklahoma State incoming freshman Henry Guan of Irving, Texas, moved into the round of 32 with a 4 and 2 victory over Francisco Cup of Saratoga, N.Y.
In other matches, three down after four holes. Facing the No. 62 seed whose résumé is far better than a player barely qualifying for match play and a world ranking 554 spots higher.
That was the predicament co-medalist/No. 3 seed Sohan Patel found himself in during the Round of 64. But the left-hander from Weston, Fla., illustrated the kind of intestinal fortitude it takes to hoist the Tiger Woods Trophy come late Saturday afternoon.
Patel, a second-year member of the U.S. National Junior Team and 2027 verbal commit to Vanderbilt University, battled back, eventually holing a clutch 25-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to eliminate incoming Pepperdine University freshman Luke Ringkamp, 18, of Palm Desert, Calif., 1 up.
The other two co-medalists, 17-year-olds Brayden Jones, of Seal Beach, Calif., and Miles Russell, of Jacksonville Beach, Fla., had relatively drama-free opening matches.
Jones, a 2027 Arizona State University verbal commit who got the No. 1 seed from the USGA scoring system, rolled to a 4-and-3 victory over Hudson Kutchma, while the left-handed Russell, the No. 7 player in WAGR who is committed to Florida State for 2027, eliminated playoff survivor Eli Wessel, 6 and 5.
For Jones, a member of Team Southern California, being the top seed may be a new experience, but he had no reservations about being the hunted over being the hunter this week. His lone blip was a double-bogey 6 on the par-5 fifth hole. Following the misstep, Jones pulled away with birdies on Nos. 8 and 10, and closed out the match on the par-5 15th hole with a par.
“My opponent was a little erratic off the tee, so I knew I just had to get in the fairway and be aggressive when I could,” said Jones, who next faces a familiar foe in Ronin Banjeree in the Round of 32 on Thursday morning as both compete in the same high school league in Orange County. “Stay in the fairway or hit it to the middle of the green when he was out of position.”
Russell, coming off making the cut in last month’s U.S. Open and being named to the 2026 USA Walker Cup Team, is clearly the most accomplished player in the field. He’s won a pair of American Junior Golf Association Player of the Year awards (2023, 2025) and is the youngest to ever make a cut in a Korn Ferry Tour event.
But he’s yet to advance beyond the quarterfinals in any USGA championship, including the last two Junior Ams and the 2025 U.S. Amateur.
